Research

In the late 1970s, conjugated polymers were proclaimed as futuristic new materials that would lead to the next generation of electronic and optical devices. It now appearswith the discoveries of, for example, polymer light-emitting diodes (LEDs)2 and organic transistors3 that new technologies are imminent. Polythiophenes are an important representative class of conjugated polymers that form some of the most environmentally and thermally stable materials that can be used as electrical conductors, nonlinear optical devices, polymer LEDs, electrochromic or smart windows, photoresists, antistatic coatings, sensors, batteries, electromagnetic shielding materials, artificial noses and muscles, solar cells, electrodes, microwave absorbing materials, new types of memory devices, nanoswitches, optical modulators and valves, imaging materials, polymer electronic interconnects, nanoelectronic and optical devices, and transistors.4,5

Creative new design and development strategies of new polythiophenes has led to interesting new materials and enhanced performance in certain devices. The ability of molecular designers to begin to understand how to gain control over the structure, properties, and function in polythiophenes continues to make the synthesis of polythiophenes a critical subject in the development of new advanced materials.

The groups goal is to design and engineer the chemical structure of regioregular poly(3-substitutedthiophene). We specialize in the formation of new materials by alternation of functional groups on the side chains, end groups, and addition of polymer blocks.